At least you got a decent Baphomet! Most of the crap that people are selling at these fly-by-night "online occult shops" look like they were made by a short-bus fifth grader with a crayon and a felt tip pen.

I was at the bar last night and some chick walks up to me and points at my shirt (I was wearing my Baphomet shirt) and says "That's the sign of of the devil!" I just smiled and said "Oh really?" She went on to say something about how Vatican scholars found tablets in Egypy with the same symbol inscribed on them. Rather than try to explain to her what an extremely idiotic claim that is to make I just smiled, pointed to my 666 tattoo and said "THAT is the sign of the devil." The mortified look on her face was priceless.

At least you got a decent Baphomet! Most of the crap that people are selling at these fly-by-night "online occult shops" look like they were made by a short-bus fifth grader with a crayon and a felt tip pen.

I'm not familiar with the Gilmore-era medallions. 1966-71 the Church's 2" degree medallions were hand-made with fire-enamel on copper and "scraffito" detail, which was very expertly done. When membership increased, this became impractical, so I negotiated the 2" Wolf-Brown medallions, which were really gorgeous items. They were produced in the degree colors: I°=garnet red, II°=white, III°=black, IV°=royal blue, V°=royal purple. The white and black ones were solid, glossy enamel. The red, blue, and purple were transparent, glossy enamel, looked like liquid jewels. [W-B also made the original Temple of Set medallions, but the company has since shut down; too bad! The W-B executive who handled the Church & Temple accounts, incidentally, joined the Temple and is today a Magister Templi IV°.]

Anton never wore his purple W-B medallion, because he had a custom silver Pentagram & lightning-bolt pendant which the Church had presented to him in 1970. Prior to then he wore the same emblem as one of the original fire-enamel/scraffito medallions: black background, white Pentagram, and red bolt. It can be seen in some early photos of him, and later went to Zeena after his demise.

Until we went to the standardized W-B color-coded system for all the degrees, it was only the first three which included the Baphomet. The original IV° was a plain white Pentagram on black. As Anton was the sole V°, the lightning-bolt distinguished him.

After 1975, when the Church degrees/priesthood became arbitrary, so did the medallion colors, which is why you can buy whatever color you like today.

When it comes to jewelry, quality is much more important then price. Especially when it comes to Satanic things. I find that the lower the quality of the product that a person is willing to wear, the lower the quality of a philosophy that person is willing to accept. I may be off on this, but it's something that I have noticed.

The new initiates of any belief system are willing to decorate themselves with all kinds of low quality trinkets. I've been to so called occult shops that sell the ugliest pieces, made with the lowest quality metals, and even plastics.

I am by no means even close to being rich. Middle class income at best, but I rather save for a few months, or even years, rather then wear junk.

It took me quite some time to find a gold inverted pentegram when I first started looking for something to wear. I think the first one that I got was just a little bit larger then a dime, but it's quite attractive, made of 14k gold.

The second one was a custom made sterling silver Baphomet, just a little bit larger then a quarter, that looked great when I got it, but because of the nature of silver, is impossible to get back to its original luster. I've tried everything from steam cleaning it, to silver polish, but nothing seems to work. So I tend to stay away from silver now.

I very rarely wear my items for public display. They are for my own private pleasure, so I either wear them in the privacy of my home, or under a shirt.I don't quite understand the psychological aspect of why I enjoy wearing them, when very few people if any actually get to see them; but non the less, it does bring me pleasure.

Edited by Asmedious (08/21/0905:35 PM)

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"The first order of government is the protection of its citizens right to be left alone."

The Baphomet pendant from markdefrates.com is too nice of a design to let collect dust in a drawer. I am in no way an expert but I myself am not into gold. I don’t really like the look or feel of gold while silver feels right in my hands. What one must remember is that a patina on silver in the creases is a good thing to most who wear it.

Now a few things I have learned from wearing silver and polishing it to keep the raised parts sparkling.

1. Silver likes to be rubbed moist not dry. 2. Maas metal polishing cream along with a soft toothbrush will even clean the creases.3. Denim works well as a cloth to polish silver with, a piece cut from an old pair of jeans will do. Don’t use the jeans you wear, as the oxidation you remove will turn everything black.4. Surprisingly Puffs plus facial tissue with aloe used to polish silver very well. 5. Most who wear silver cannot wait until it oxidizes enough to darken the low spots adding contrast.

Wow I just looked here to make sure I was using the proper terminology for a silver patina. It taught me quite a few things I didn’t know like rubber and silver doesn’t mix as well as different ways of cleaning silver.

Hope it helps.

~T~

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We are the music makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams. ~Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy

I don't do gold either. I can afford it, but the look and feel of the metal do nothing for me, where silver does, as well as other metals, like good quality brushed pewter.

I've seen ONE solid gold Baphomet in all of my years that looked GOOD. It was traditional, as one would think of a Baphomet worn by a Church of Satan member, and skillfully detailed, and EXPENSIVE. But most of the ones I've see "in gold" have been silly looking ones that people have used gold paint or gold leaf on. Low quality, for sure.

To my mind, a Sigil of Baphomet cries out for silver toned metals in their construction and quality worksmanship.

Years ago, my wife gave me an inverted gold cross as a birthday gift. It was very important to me since she made the effort to find a jeweler willing to custom make it. Also, she is not a Satanist, so it was a big step for her to do that for me. I cherished that necklace. I only wore it on special occasions.

My youngest child decided it was too cool for dad and took it from me and either sold it or lost it. To this day I will never forgive him for that. He has no idea how that hurt me. I could pop his head like a grape, and not care.

In my mind, Satanism and other occult paths embody darkness, the night. Gold represents the sun, Silver the moon. The sun does not shine at midnight, the moon does. Therefore, LHP = Silver. Although having been in N. Georgia panning for gold, I ended up buying a few gold things as well for keepsake, and I don't wear gold. I guess I'll have to now! But only during the day

I just noticed that Jake has uploaded a photo of one of the 1966-1970 Church of Satan Baphomet medallions here. As this is white, it is the II° medallion of a Witch (female) or Warlock (male).

I could never quite figure red for the I° and white for the II°. I would think white when you start out nice and pure, and red once you get your shit together. [We reversed the I°/II° colors in the Temple of Set, continued the others as previously.]

I'll have to rummage around and see if I still have some of the old medallions ... if so will upload here if I can photo or scan them adequately.

I thought this was kinda interesting to share.Its a site that gives the timeframe, location, information, and the names of wars/battles/rebellions/etc, all over the globe.From what I can tell starting with the Kurukshetra War 3009-2914BC.till 2003? It goes in every 5 year bits, and looks like it took a lot of work so far to do.

Call it morbid curiosity, but this site does have the ability to “put things in perspective” whenever I’m feeling jaded with the world.

I’ve always been deeply interested in crime scene photography, and was very nearly a Criminologist. I’m currently working in computer forensics, but these pictures make me pine for the vocation that was very nearly a reality.

so i went to get my friday the 13th tattoo. initially i wanted a black widow hanging from a web with a 13 in the hourglass on my neck under my ear. the shop said that was too involved for a $13 tattoo. agreed. instead i got a graffiti like #13 in flames. the 13 is in blue that fades into skin. the flames are orange and red, duh. the guy easily could have charged $200 for it. it's that big, and took 2 hours to do. i put it on my left tricep, near my Coop devil and baphomet. my wife and kid were both finished before i was half way.

my wife got a rose with 13 in the middle. also quite large. i have no idea what my kid got. who can argue with a $13 tattoo on friday the 13th?